Carmen Dell'Orefice born on June 3, 1931 is an American model and actress. She is known within the fashion industry for being the world's oldest working model as of the Spring/Summer 2012 season. She was on the cover of Vogue at the age of 15 and has been modelling ever since. Her daily motto is to enjoy herself, at no-one else's expense.
At the age of 13, while riding a bus to ballet class, she was approached to model by the wife of photographer Herman Landschoff. In 1946, her godfather introduced her to Vogue and the 15-year-old signed a modeling contract for $7.50 an hour. She became a favorite model of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld who shot her first Vogue cover in 1946. She appears in the December 15, 1947 issue of US Vogue as Little Red Riding Hood,Snow White and Cinderella along with model Dorian Leigh, actors Ray Bolger and Jose Ferrer. Dell'Orefice and her mother struggled financially, and her modeling income was not enough to sustain the family. With no telephone, Vogue had to send runners to their apartment to let Dell'Orefice know about modeling jobs. She roller-skated to assignments to save on bus fares.
She was so malnourished that famed fashion photographers Horst P. Horst and Cecil Beaton had to pin back dresses and stuff the curves with tissue. In 1947, Dell'Orefice's rate was raised to $10–$25 per hour. She appeared on the October 1947 cover of Vogue, at age 16, one of the youngest Vogue cover models. She was also on the November 1948 cover of Vogue. She worked with the most famous fashion photographers of the era, including Irving Penn, Gleb Derujinsky, Francesco Scavullo, Norman Parkinson, and Richard Avedon. Dell'Orefice was photographed by Melvin Sokolsky for Harper's Bazaar in 1960. Sokolsky also photographed her for the classic Vanity Fair lingerie campaign.
While most models have a short career window, the legendary Carmen Dell’Orefice has been strutting her stuff for nearly 70 years. Carmen Dell'Orefice, the 86-year-old model reveals the secrets to her lasting success..
Her motivation to keep modelling remains simple: she likes what she does and appreciates the collegiality. "It brings me in touch, as a single person, living on my own."
Her name is synonymous with luxury brands, including Rolex and Hermès, and she has been photographed by every legendary fashion photographer of the 20th century. And at an age when many of her contemporaries are long forgotten or sadly deceased, she is still fronting campaigns for luxury brands such as Rolex and walking the runway for Gaultier, Galliano and Mugler.
She has razor-sharp cheekbones and fine skin. Her eyes are captivating; a bright, light blue. She is tall and graceful, but her knees are a source of such "searing discomfort" that she moves with some difficulty. She wears hearing aids. "These are about three months old on me and both batteries are f...ing dead," she says, with some residual Queens sassiness.
The shocking Statement!
'Being on the cover of Vogue at 15 meant nothing to me,’ confesses Carmen Dell’Orefice. She doesn’t mean to sound ungrateful; it was more that she was baffled by it all.
'I never really understood what it was they were looking at, what they saw in me,' she shrugs. Whatever it was, she’s still very much in possession of it;
- Fashion and beauty have no age limit -